Guardian File Manager (GFM)

This was a little project I put together for my Intro to Cybersecurity class. You can access the GFM at https://guardianfilemanager.duckdns.org. [Edit: I've indefinitely suspended the EC2 instance that was running the website.]

Features

1. Account Registration
   • Guardians can create their own GFM account which gives them their own sanctuary to store files.
2. Shared Sanctuary
   • Guardians can share a sanctuary with other guardians, allowing them to send and receive files with one another. Elder Guardians can choose how much power a guardian has on the Shared Sanctuary.
3. File Previewing
   • Guardians can preview txt, pdf, and most image file formats.
4. Sanctuary Modification
   • Guardians can upload, download, and delete uploaded content from their own sanctuary. With sufficient permissions, guardians can modify the Shared Sanctuary.
5. Batch File Uploading

QoL

1. Audit logging
   • All guardian activity is monitored for enhanced security.
2. HTTPS redirects
   • Alongside the implementation of HTTPS, all HTTP requests will be redirected to encrypted pipes.
3. Web serving obfuscation
   • The user can't see the type of web page being requested. This is to enhance security and serves as a QoL feature.
4. DNS
   • A DNS provider was used because the alternative isn't fun.
5. Password hashing
   • All passwords are stored in a salted & hashed form.

Technologies

• Apache2
• OpenLDAP (Linux implementation of LDAP)
• OpenSSL
• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
• Duck DNS
• Let's Encrypt
• Wireshark (testing)

Languages

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• PHP

Frameworks

No frameworks were used to make this project. I wanted to sit down and see how a project could be done "the old-fashioned way." I intend to pick up some more frameworks to see how they affect the ease of work as a developer for future projects.

Architecture

This was a rough mental map I had in the back of my mind when making this project. Specific technologies and modules were decided along the way.